Limited Government

My wife shared with me a quote of former President James Madison. Seems he was more than a little concerned that government intervention into education and providing care for people (both areas that had traditionally been provided for by Christian families and churches) would rapidly result in an out of control government. Here's what he said way back in 1792:

"If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their own hands; they may appoint teachers in every state, county, and parish, and pay them out of their public treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may assume the provision for the poor; they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads; in short, everything, from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police, would be thrown under the power of Congress."

What President Madison was concerned about has most certainly come to pass. The biblical conception of limited government is but a lost memory. When the government comes to such power and control, it becomes for many their god and their religion. Jesus Christ is the Supreme Leader, Provider and Protector of those called by His Name. We live in a culture and a nation where our government is our leader, our provider (note all the entitlement programs), and our protector. Biblically, the role of government was to be limited. Take time to study the Bible and learn what God has ordained for government. (A great resource in this regard is the 3 volume study guide by Gary DeMar called God and Government." It is available through his website at www.americanvision.org) Study and then work for change. Part of the great dominion mandate that God gives us as Christians is to work to bring all things under Him, every part of our lives, including our families, our churches, and our nation.

Boys Protect Girls

I came across this interesting story I thought you'd enjoy: Boys protect girls. Teddy Roosevelt understood that rather well. Long before he was the president, he served, albeit briefly, as a Sunday school teacher. The story is told that a young man came to class with a bloody nose and his clothes in tatters. Mr. Roosevelt asked the young man, in a stern and menacing tone, just what had happened. The boy explained that a bigger boy had been picking on a girl and he lit into him. Teddy gave the boy a dollar, and soon was fired from his job.

Let's encourage our boys to biblical manhood. Let's remind them that boys protect girls. In a world that has forgotten God's ways and sent wives and mothers off to combat as soldiers, let's you and I change the world one life at a time ... God's way.

Marriage

All that talk about defining marriage. God must truly think we are dense in this nation. Think about a young couple who just had their first child. There they are in the hospital, ready to go home. The nurse walks up to them and hands them a baby to take home. Problem is its not the one they gave birth to. "No problem" says the nurse, "the state just passed a law that says any child will do, so we only need to get one out of the nursery for you." Absurd isn't it? Could never happen, right? Well it seems like we shouldn't have to define marriage either. Whose baby should you go home with from the hospital? Yours, the one you gave birth to and brought into the world. No one would deny that.

Well, who brought marriage into the world? Seems to me God did and He did it in Genesis chapter 1. He created both Adam and Eve and gave them to each other as husband and wife creating the institution of marriage. He even said in Genesis 2 that they were to be "one flesh," inseparable for life. Marriage wasn't man's idea. It wasn't something that came from years of trial and error in relationships. It was God's idea and He created it. One man and one woman, for life. It's a sad day when we have to legislate that. We must always look to the Bible as our guide for life, for all of life.

Solving Problems

When we are confronted with any problem, we should never deal immediately with the problem directly, in and of itself. The problem may simply be the symptom of a greater or real problem. Our tendency is to quickly respond to any problem we encounter, most of the time without even thinking. Get a group of people together and throw out a problem. What happens?? Everyone jumps in with their solution. No one thinks about whether the stated problem is even the real problem. Here is what we need to do: first, examine the issue and make sure you know what the real problem is, make sure you aren't looking at the symptom. Second, before attempting to solve that real problem, you must ask yourself which general principle from the Bible addresses the problem. Always look for the Bible's general teaching on a matter and then apply it to the particular problem at hand. 2 Peter 1:3 reminds us that God's Word has the answers, the principles we need to solve all the problems we face in life. Isn't that great! Look to the Answer Book.

Welcome

This is the official blog of Steven Schlagel at Paradox Mountain. The purpose will be to capture thoughts on what it means to live as a true Christian, faithful to the teaching of the Bible, in every area of life.

How we as men lead, protect, and provide for our wives and children is a key theme within the Bible. Our society and culture are at war against such thinking so we must crystalize our thinking and bring it into submission to what God teaches us in His Word.

In addition, we must be faithful not only to live as such, but we must be sure to teach it to our children and our children's children. 2 Timothy 2:2 tells us that we are to pass it on as do multiple passage in Deuteronomy and elsewhere.

I will be discussing such issues in this blog. I hope they challenge your thinking and encourage you to place God's Word first in your life.